Calvin comeback wins NCAA title

Saturday

Nov 23, 2013 at 11:03 PMNov 23, 2013 at 11:03 PM

By Lee LambertsSentinel contributor

Just when the Calvin women’s volleyball team was on the brink of elimination, something happened.At the Division III national finals in Hope College’s DeVos Fieldhouse, the Knights rediscovered Maggie Kamp.Kamp, a sophomore outside hitter, led Calvin to one of the greatest comebacks in school history as the Knights rallied from a two-game deficit to beat Cal Lutheran 3-2.Kamp had 27 kills, with 19 of them coming in the final three games as Calvin (35-1) beat the Regals (35-2) 20-25, 12-25, 25-22, 25-17 and 20-18 for their second national championship.Only after the drama of a fifth game, that featured six match points after the teams were tied at 14-14, was coach Amber Warners and her players able to lean back and savor the win."I love those high intensity moments and I love getting the ball in them," said Kamp, who also was credited with 18 digs. "I play better when I’m pretty mad and after losing the first two, I was pretty (ticked) off and we came back and took it to them."With Kamp playing angry and the better part of a capacity crowd inside DeVos Fieldhouse cheering on the Knights, Calvin still needed a moment or two to get its focus back.All it took was a little time away from the court, a 10-minute break mandated by the NCAA after the second game."I think a big part of it, but not to give it all the credit, was that 10-minute break we had (after the second game)," senior Megan Reitema said after leading Calvin with 49 assists. "During that break we took a little breather, we played some games and came out a little more relaxed."Regathering and being able to come out relaxed helped us turn the game around."Reitema, the Division III Player of the Year, along with fellow senior Kristen Zietse, was a member of Calvin’s last championship team in 2010, but they lost last year to St. Thomas (Minn.) in last year’s finals.Warner agreed the break was a key."We said no volleyball talk for the first six minutes of that 10 minutes. You do your little fun games or whatever you do and then we’ll talk," said Warners, a Holland Christian graduate. "I think the first thing I said to them was, ‘We’ve been in this situation before and flipped. We can flip it back.’"They did, but not right away.Calvin did not get a good run going until it outscored Cal Lutheran 8-3 to turn a 12-10 deficit into an 18-14 advantage. The Regals rallied to within two points at 21-19, but would get no closer.The turning point in game four may have come with Calvin leading 6-3. What looked like a point for the Regals went Calvin’s way when Jamie Kooiman made a diving save on a dig to set up the seventh point.That really ignited the partisan crowd and keyed five consecutive points that made the Knights look really comfortable. Only when Rietema’s fifth kill of the match was a left-handed tip that landed just inside of the sideline."This is a hard sport to win, especially at this level," Warners said. "I think fans that just watch don’t realize how difficult it is. They just think you can flip a switch and be back on your ‘A’ game."I think I tend to be a little more of a pessimist in nature, but there wasn’t one time I didn’t believe we couldn’t win this."